The BOT Quest
by Taeya
Summary: Harry PotterObernewtyn Crossover. Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna travel forward in time, into Elspeth's time...and don't bother to read this unless you've read the Obernewtyn chronicles, or you won't understand a word of it, because there's a lot about it
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hi! This is my first story on I hope you like it, and please remember to review!

Ron tossed the bed covers to the ground, and checked under his four-poster Hogwarts bed. "Where is it?" he moaned, looking under his pillow. "I can't go home without it!"

"Tell us what it is, Ron, and maybe I can help you find it," Harry replied. "Or maybe we should get Hermione in here…"

"No!" Ron replied. "Besides," he said happily, "I found it!"

"Is that a-" Harry said angrily, before being cut off.

"Yep," Ron said proudly, "A time-turner! I rescued it from the ministry all those years back, and hid it, so now we can go-"

"What do you have there!" Hermione gasped as she entered the boys' dormitory. "We've got to go now, or we'll miss the train-"

"No need. I've got a time-turner," Ron replied.

"Don't be ridiculous, Ron, those things were all destroyed when we were at the ministry," Hermione said, more trying to convince herself than Ron.

"Ron, put that thing down," Harry pleaded. "It's probably dangerous, and it'll malfunction…"

"No, look," Ron said excitedly, "Let's see how far forward it goes-"

"Ron, No!" Harry and Hermione said at once. They both reached for Ron as Luna wandered in dreamily and put a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"What's going on?" she asked, but at that second Harry and Hermione grabbed Ron, who twisted the time-turner, and all four were thrown forwards in time in the confusion and all landed in a future Hogwarts.

Harry staggered-and almost fell through the decaying floor-and landed on his back, looking up. Ron, Hermione and Luna got tangled up and feel on top of Harry, ending up as a writhing mass of arms and legs and muffled shouts.

When Hermione finally got her head free, what she saw made her face pale.

It had taken weeks to get the Teknoguilders permission to come, but that had finally paid off. For some reason, Elspeth was having premonitions about a castle that had appeared mysteriously, and felt urgent to get to the castle ruins.

"Are you sure?" Rushton had asked dubiously. "From the last report, there was nothing there…"

"Completely," Elspeth had reassured him. "Please, let the Teknoguilders and I investigate. Castles don't just appear."

"I'll think about it," Rushton had promised, "but did you stop to think that maybe appearing castles might disappear as well at any time?"

Elspeth had nodded, already planning the trip.

Now they were finally there, at the border of the Blacklands in front of the castle. The group searched the first floor quickly, finding nothing, and something made Elspeth shiver. She climbed up rotting stairs, eventually reaching a curious dark hole in the wall. She stepped through, but whatever the room had been, she couldn't say what now. More stairs spiralled up; she took the left staircase.

She could see, once at the top, that this room was one of the towers. The roof was gone, and the place was clearly crumbling down, and she picked her way across the floor, hugging herself for warmth.

Then, what happened next nearly made Elspeth fall through one of the countless holes in the floor.

There was a flash, and Elspeth saw what the room used to be like. She saw a scene play out in the blink of an eye - four kids her age, doing something-and landed back in the present. In front of her was a struggling mass of legs and arms, and a girl with bushy hair sat up.

"What on earth?" she whispered, then saw Elspeth. "Who are you?" she asked fearfully. "What happened to Hogwarts?"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Hey there! This is pretty much as short as the last chapter. It's not that interesting, but I'm getting there! Please remember to review.

The girl who had introduced herself as Elspeth helped them get up, and offered them pieces of ragged cloth to put over their mouths-though Luna put it on her head. Apparently the area they were in was tainted with nuclear radiation.

"What happened here?" Ron asked, astonished.

"What do you mean?" Elspeth replied. "This place-from the looks of it-has been like this for hundreds of years."

"Hundreds of years?" Hermione gasped. "Ron, whatever you did, you are such an IDIOT!"

"It's not _my_ fault," Ron whined.

"Ron, take us back _now_," Harry said. Ron pulled out the time-turner and twisted and shook it, but it was stuck.

"It's stuck!" he yelled. "Harry?"

"Ron!" Hermione yelled angrily.

"Hermione," Luna called. "And Harry!"

"Luna?" Harry asked, confused.

There's people coming up the stairs," Luna explained. Meanwhile, Elspeth just looked away nervously, not sure what to make of the situation.

"You okay…heard voices…yelling…" a male voice drifted up the stairs.

"Garth, come up here," Elspeth called nervously. "There's something you should see."

"No, that's important," Hermione was saying to Ron. "Don't touch it. Would a spell work?"

"It might muck up the device," Harry pointed out. Luna looked around, not that interested in the conversation.

Hey, this is where your bed was, Harry," Luna remarked. Eventually she reached the wall, and she stopped. Most of the wall was gone, and outside, the country looked bleak and desolate. Even the lake was gone. "Look at this!" she gaped.

The others looked up, and gasped, just noticing their surroundings, and didn't notice a large boy come up the stairs and talk to Elspeth.

"What happened here?" Harry asked softly, but no one answered.

Elspeth and Garth led the four extra people to the cart, where the others on the expedition-Jak, Fian and Qwinn-were waiting. Once Elspeth quietly explained what had happened, they decided to cut the trip short. They would take some books-though it wasn't clear what the books were about- and pots, which Hermione told them were called cauldrons, and anything else they had found. They also found fossilised remnants of some herbs, so they took some of that too.

"What should we do about them?" Jak asked nervously, gesturing to the four teenagers huddled on the steps of the castle.

"We'll bring them back to Obernewtyn," Elspeth replied.

"Would Rushton mind?" Qwinn asked as he heaved a particularly large cauldron onto the cart.

"Oh, Rushton… of course…" Elspeth answered vaguely.

"You shouldn't do that," one of the new people, whom Elspeth recalled was Luna, said.

"What?" Jak asked, confused.

"Pile the cauldrons up. It's bad," Luna said. Jumping down to the cart, she stacked books inside the cauldrons and switched the pots around.

"What are you doing? That took ages to pack!" Fian protested.

"Trust me," Luna said levelly. Looking into Luna's eyes, for some reason he did what she said, and motioned for the others to help her.

Elspeth looked curiously at Luna, and sent a delicate probe into her mind.

'_What are you doing?'_ came a shocked mental voice. Elspeth retreated, startled, as Luan turned around to face her. Luna studied Elspeth's face, then walked up into the crumbling castle where the other three waited, talking to Garth.

'_She has a sensitive mind,'_ Elspeth noted, and frowned. _'Or is she one of us?'_


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** Again, not as good as it could be, but it'll get exiting further on, I promise! And please remember to review!

"So, how long do you think it would take to fix this… watch?" Harry asked.

"Let's see… ah… it might take my Teknoguilders about… a week," Garth replied, peering at the time-turner. "Though we may have to disassemble and examine it, for we haven't dealt with things such as this…"

"What do you mean?" Ron exclaimed. "You're amateurs?"

"This is from the Beforetime," Garth hastily explained. "There haven't been things like this for hundreds of years. No one knows -for sure, anyway- how to fix these things."

"I might be able to work it out from a book, and do it myself," Hermione said.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked, and looked at Garth. He looked crestfallen at missing the chance to examine the time-turner.

"My Teknoguilders are very capable," Garth assured them.

"That's nice t o know," Luna said absently as she joined them. "But we're going now."

"We're leaving!" Elspeth called from the cart.

"We know," Garth called back. Elspeth blinked, confused, as Garth went over.

"So, should we go with them?" Harry asked once Garth had left.

"I guess," Hermione shrugged.

"I'm with you, Harry," Ron said, but Harry noted he was watching Hermione.

"Whatever," Luna said.

"Let's go then," Harry said nervously. "Okay."

They looked out at the dark, blackened landscape, and followed.

They travelled in the horse-drawn cart for hours. Luna and Garth chatted about what Garth and Elspeth called the 'Beforetime'-Harry, Hermione, Ron & Luna's time-while they all travelled. Eventually, they reached a proper road, then a dark forest, which reminded Harry of the Forbidden Forest. Soon after that they reached some plains, then the tainted mountains.

"Home!" Elspeth exclaimed delightfully. "Home to Obernewtyn!"

"What's Obernewtyn?" Hermione asked.

"You'll see," Jak replied. Hermione looked at Ron, who shrugged, and lay back, waiting for the journey to end.

Elspeth sat in silence for the rest of the journey, Hermione seemed to have talents, probably latent though, but Elspeth didn't dare delve, remembering Luna. When they came in sight of the mountains that hid and protected Obernewtyn, however, her thoughts changed to Rushton, Maruman and others at home, and pondering how Ceirwan was going with the Farseekers' Guild.

The cart had reached the base of the mountains when Elspeth realised she'd been dozing. She looked around to find that everyone else had been dozing too, except for Qwinn, who was driving. Ahead, the road curved, and Elspeth finally found that she could sense familiar mind voices.

'_Ceirwan! We're on our way,'_ Elspeth sent.

'_Elspeth! Ye won' like what's happened,'_ Ceirwan sent in reply anxiously.

'_What is it?' _Elspeth urged, but the cart gave a jolt, which broke the connection. Elspeth held up her hands, expecting a cauldron to land on her, but nothing happened. At the front of the cart, she heard Qwinn swear as he started up the cart again.

"That's why I told them not to stack the cauldrons up," Luna remarked. "It would have hurt…"

'_Oh great, I woke someone up,' _Elspeth thought.

"It's okay, I was only pretending to sleep anyway," Luna said, pulling out an apple and munching on it. It took a moment for Elspeth to realise that Luna must have picked up on her thoughts, as Elspeth hadn't said that aloud.

'_You can farspeak?'_ Elspeth sent, surprised.

'_You finally figured it out,'_ Luna replied dryly. _'I call it telepathy, or mind speaking, but whatever. I spoke to you before when you _rudely_ poked into my mind.'_

'_Oh,'_ Elspeth remembered, and blushed. _'Normally I would ask, but for all I know you could be some sort of spy from the Herder Faction or something. I'll tell you about them, seeing as you don't know and all.'_

'_I come from another dimension, so please, enlighten me.'_ Luna replied.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Not much to say. Enjoy and review!

Hermione listened as Elspeth told Luna about the Great White (the holocaust), the Herder Faction and the Council as she lay in the cart, eyes widening at what had happened to the world.

'_Why would anyone want or try to blow up the world?'_ Hermione thought in horror. She couldn't see Luna or Elspeth's mouths move, but she guessed it was because she was so tired. Ron was snoring and Harry couldn't lie still, but she guessed that was normal for them. The one thing that bothered her was the murmuring. She had started hearing it since they reached the trees, above, around and far-off. It seemed to come from the trees themselves, but she somehow knew it wasn't.

But for some reason, she couldn't shake the feeling that it was the _animals_.

Meanwhile, dreams plagued Harry. About three times, he had woken up, sweating. Twice, Garth had been awake and stared at him suspiciously, so Harry had lain back down, his scar prickling. He was filled with a strange feeling, and it took Harry a while to figure out what it was.

It was freedom.

Hogwarts had given him a type of freedom, but it was still filled with rules. Now he had no horrid relatives that he had to return to. He guessed that his only unrest came from the knowledge that now there was almost nothing to fear and not much to lose. He felt excited and thrilled, feeling that he could do whatever he wanted.

Once Elspeth had finished explaining about the present world, Luna fiddled with her necklace, appearing dreamy. Occasionally a thought would enter her head, and she smiled.

Hermione worried. She thought her parents might be wondering where she was, but she dismissed the idea. Now she was in the future. Her parents weren't even alive, though that thought was unsettling and Hermione didn't think about it much.

It was dark by the time they got to Obernewtyn, and even though they slept on the journey, they were all too tired to take notice of the large oak doors, or the passages resembling Hogwarts. All they noticed was the front door, and then the beds.

Elspeth rushed straight to Rushton, who was in the Healer's Hall, talking to Roland.

"What happened?" Elspeth asked, worried.

"I volunteered for an experiment," replied Ceirwan ruefully from a hospital bed. Elspeth whirled around to glare at him.

"Now who's going to help me run the Farseekers' Guild?" Elspeth grumbled. "What type of experiment?"

"Ah… well, anyway, I broke my leg," Ceirwan said. "Anyway, what did you find at the castle?"

"We found books," Elspeth replied excitedly. "And some pots… and get this- there were people there!"

"Elspeth, I didn't think you the Teknoguilder type, so I know there has to be more than it to books," Rushton said.

"I just told you! There were people at the castle!" Elspeth replied, frustrated.

"I heard, but I thought you were joking. As in, they were exploring, or visiting at the same time as you?" Rushton asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, as in, lived there!" Elspeth said. "They say they come from the Beforetime! They called the place Hoggywart or something."

"Elspeth, I think it's a bi' late," Ceirwan said, amused. "Maybe ye need a rest…"

"Stop _mocking me_!" Elspeth said, annoyed. "I'm telling the truth. Their names are Harry, Hermione, Ron and Luna and I brought them here…"

"You WHAT?" Rushton yelled. "What if they're spies?" he lowered his voice as some passing healers glared at him. "Why on earth did you do that?"

"Well, Luna's a Talented Misfit, I'm sure, and they say they came from the Beforetime!" Elspeth said. Rushton shook his head, not believing it.

"If I live to regret letting you do this, I'll make sure you do too!" Rushton threatened.

"Well, ye didn' have much of a say in it anyway," Ceirwan pointed out.

"Well, I guess I'll see them before you start introducing them to the whole castle," Rushton said, and glared at Ceirwan and Elspeth.

"They're asleep," Elspeth told him as they left the Healers Hall.

"I guess I could wait," Rushton sighed.

'_But should you?'_ Elspeth found herself thinking. _'Am I making a mistake, and risking all of Obernewtyn?'_


End file.
